'There's No Business Like Show Business': Using Multimedia Materials to Teach Entertainment Law
17 Pages Posted: 12 Feb 2010
Date Written: February, 11 2010
Abstract
Entertainment law, perhaps more than any other subject of law, lends itself well to use of multimedia materials, including DVD clips, Court TV segments, audio music clips, and the Internet. Multimedia materials help to vividly illustrate both how disputes arise and how to avoid them. Very often, multimedia materials themselves are the dispositive evidence in a copyright, trademark, or right-of-publicity dispute involving a hit song, motion picture, or television program. Such materials can shed valuable light on the doctrines underlying entertainment law, as well as on the practical, real-world aspects of entertainment industry workings.
This Essay sets forth the author's approach to teaching entertainment law, using multimedia materials to complement traditional case law approaches. Entertainment law encompasses a wide array of subject areas, but this Essay concentrates on intellectual property. Part I describes the author's methodology in teaching the course, especially the focus on clearance, litigation, and transactions. Parts II, III, IV, and V examine how multimedia materials can illuminate the law of ideas and issues surrounding copyright, right of publicity, and trademark.
Keywords: teaching methodology, legal education, multimedia teaching methods, multimedia materials, entertainment law, intellectual property, copyright, trademark, right of publicity
JEL Classification: K10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation